I found this quite interesting... & maybe more than a little guilt-inducing.
https://maalvika.substack.com/p/being-too-ambitious-is-a-clever-form
Best sentence IMO:
The brain can't tell the difference between productive preparation and elaborate procrastination.
Whoops...
Otoh, as a retired engineer, i could not read this without more than a little bit of my mind screeching "but, but, but..."
My alma mater, Olin College of Engineering, had a motto that rewired how I think about everything: "Do-Learn." Those two words contain a revolution. Not "learn-then-do," which implies you must earn permission to act. Not "think-then-execute," which suggests theory should precede practice. But the radical idea that doing is learning! That understanding emerges from your hands as much as your head, that wisdom lives in the conversation between intention and reality.
This philosophy saved me from my own perfectionism more times than I can count. When I wanted to learn cooking, I didn't read recipes endlessly; I burned onions and discovered how heat actually behaves. When I wanted to learn a language, I didn't memorize grammar rules; I stumbled through conversations with native speakers who corrected my mistakes in real time. When I wanted to learn how to monetize on YouTube, I didn't write elaborate content strategies; I started posting videos and let the brutal feedback teach me what actually resonated.
"Do-Learn" gave me permission to start before I was ready, fail early, fail often, to discover through making rather than thinking my way to readiness.
--> I never wish to cross a bridge [/ board a plane / enter a high-rise elevator, yada yada] built by tradespeople who never bothered first learning their craft, designed by an "engineer" who's not yet actually got around to learning any actual, well y'know, engineering! Ditto brain surgery, heart surgery, et al.